Not Another Yankee-Doodle Dandy Trip For Toon?

25 March 2013 08:01

Newcastle United could be off to the States again, despite the complex mess up 18 months ago.

The Magpies were forced to change their plans last year when the Vodacom Challenge in South Africa was cancelled.

That resulted in a series of rearrangements, with games in Germany against Chemnitzer and Monaco and a friendly with Fenerbachce in Austria being bolted on to their summer fixture list, before the poorly attended Algarve Tournament with games against Olympiakos and SC Braga taking place in Portugal.

Fans attending the game in eastern Germany against Chemnitzer weren’t notified until shortly before the friendly, which Newcastle lost 1-0.

And the 1-1 draw with Fenerbahce which took place in the remote Austrian village of Ritzing also had planning issues, with the game switched at a late stage from the Hungarian town of Sopron.

The Chronicle reports that United have considered another tour of America this summer, despite a not-so happy tour 18 months ago.

United toured the United States in 2011 and the trip was regarded a mess by some of the players who played in the three matches in Kansas, Orlando and Columbus.

Alan Pardew: “We’re looking at various scenarios.

“Obviously we had the disappointment of last summer and South Africa being cancelled.

“That is a process I do not want to repeat.

“We really got let down with pre-season last year and we aren’t going to put ourselves in that position again.